AA's operation to Colombia will suffer some minor, yet interesting changes later this year that I thought would be logical to share...

AA will reduce capacity on its daily MIA-CLO service, going from 757 to 738, effective Dec15/05.

Cali has never been as good in filling seats to Miami as Bogota or Medellin have, and while the yields may be fine, the fact that Cali was only able to register a mediocre low-60% of load to Miami in the middle of the hottest travelling period of the year just helped to settle the idea.

Added to the above, AA has just completed its first couple of weeks of competition with CO's new daily IAH-CLO service. AA's flight to MIA, however, departs Cali significantly earlier than CO's, so the new 738 service will come with a schedule change, and AA's will then match CO's departure hour.

AA's MIA-BOG route will see 763 service return later this year. Effective Oct30/05 and throughout Dec14/05, Bogota will be served with the same 2 dailies from Miami, but instead of 1x AB6 and 1x 757, it will go to 1x AB6 and 1x 763.

Effective Dec15/05, MIA-BOG goes to three daily flights indefinitely, 1x AB6 and 2x 757, as was usual only during high-seasons.

Well at least AV's results with its BAQ-MIA route show that there are still plenty of wealthy Miami-travellers in Barranquilla to cater for. For overall revenue and profits MIA-BOG is, of course, the leader among AV's routes to the Miami area, but BAQ-MIA has shown a pretty impressive growth both in passengers and cargo, and well deserves an upgrade to 757.

I never thought of it, but I think it is. In route length as such, though, MIA-BOG is beaten by BOS-SJU, for example.

I also believe that BOG is one of the closest cities to the US which receives regular AA 763 service; don't quote me on that though, I'm not quite sure if the Caribbean [excluding SJU] receives regular 763s.

Quoting SOUTHAMERICA (Reply 4):I never thought of it, but I think it is. In route length as such, though, MIA-BOG is beaten by BOS-SJU, for example.

BOS-SJU is pretty long.

Quoting SOUTHAMERICA (Reply 4):I also believe that BOG is one of the closest cities to the US which receives regular AA 763 service; don't quote me on that though, I'm not quite sure if the Caribbean [excluding SJU] receives regular 763s.

I think you are correct. What is surprising to me is that AA does not fly the 763 to CCS. I think the strategy is to have frequencies and destinations - MIA 4x, DFW 1x, SJU 1x, and JFK 1x. Their routes to CCS just blow my mind, no other USA based airline even comes close. Didn't they have FLL-CCS at one point?

Quoting A300AA (Reply 8):Rumors are that MDE will be operated on 737/8 also

Could be, but I sincerely doubt it for a couple of reasons.

MDE-MIA, apart from naturally moving more passengers than CLO-MIA, also registers way more cargo traffic. MDE is much higher than CLO, and a 738 would never offer the cargo hold that the 757 has, much less the high & hot performance.

Added to that, remember that AA still requires an extra certification for pilots who fly into TGU, UIO, LPB and MDE; if you look closely, all of those cities are served exclusively by 757, and downgrading MDE to 738 would only create the need of training an additional bunch of crew only to operate to Medellin.

Again, I honestly doubt MDE will ever get downgraded to 738, it doesn't make sense, but it's just my opinion and anything could happen. I checked yesterday on aa.com, and CLO already shows the 738 service well into 2006, while MDE still has the scheduled 757 unchanged.

Quoting A300AA (Reply 8):Also loads to MDE CLO and BOG on this season, couldnt be better

Yes, they could be better, especially to CLO. A 64% load isn't anything special, and that's the best CLO could register to MIA on June. MDE and BOG posted 74 and 79 respectively.

Quoting SOUTHAMERICA (Reply 9):Yes, they could be better, especially to CLO. A 64% load isn't anything special, and that's the best CLO could register to MIA on June. MDE and BOG posted 74 and 79 respectively.

Loads tell little of the story. Cali has, by far, the best yield's of any of AA's three Colombia routes. The 738 is also a superior aircraft comfort-wise.

Quoting MAH4546 (Reply 14):The 738s have 32" of pitch (and some rows have more), without MRTC. The 757s have 31" in every seat.

See, nothing to write home about. If MRTC still existed, then going from 757 to 738 would have been awesome for people in Cali.

With the arrival of 738 service, sure, they get one inch more on leg-room per seat, but paralel to that they also loose additional cargo space for the already run-down export industry in Cali. The CLO-MIA route already registered a -20% decrease in cargo traffic compared to last year, and things aren't going to get any better.

Quoting SOUTHAMERICA (Reply 15):See, nothing to write home about. If MRTC still existed, then going from 757 to 738 would have been awesome for people in Cali.

One inch makes a major difference unless one is very short.

And the interior cabins don't compare. The 757s are old and uncomfortable. The 738s are new, featuring a more modern interior, bigger overhead storage spaces, and more comfortable seats with winged headrests, and better recline. I don't know if you've ever flown either, but the AA 757 is regarded as the most dreaded domestic AA plane to fly on by frequent flyers, and the 738 is the most loved. Though to each his own...

Quoting MAH4546 (Reply 16):the AA 757 is regarded as the most dreaded domestic AA plane to fly on by frequent flyers, and the 738 is the most loved.

Good or bad, most people in LatAm have different, simpler expectancies of service, and I believe that Cali doesn't even provide half of the amount of frequent fliers needed by AA to really be forced to "reward" the city with an equipment change. What is CLO anyway? A VFR-traffic-dominated market in which the real bulk of passengers is registered in two big seasons of the year.

In that sense, people in Cali were simply lucky that AA's effort to make CLO a more viable destination by cutting capacity meant a bit extra comfort for them. But in the end, I still don't see how Cali will end up winning instead of losing with this move.

Just a wild speculation, but could the equiptment change at CLO be the result of taking a 757 off line for winglet modification? If that project is a go, AA is going to have to take 757's out of the network and replace them with other aircraft while the upgrades are made.

Assuming AA wants to have a small sub-fleet of 757's to take across the pond/deep Brazil by next spring/summer, the planes would have to go into maintenance this fall/winter, right?

Quoting SOUTHAMERICA (Reply 17):In that sense, people in Cali were simply lucky that AA's effort to make CLO a more viable destination by cutting capacity meant a bit extra comfort for them. But in the end, I still don't see how Cali will end up winning instead of losing with this move.

There is nothing to make more viable. On a per flight basis, AA's Miami-Cali flight, as I've said, bring in the highest passenger yields. They aren't trying to make CLO more viable, they are simple moving capacity around. And the four extra weekly flights that have been operating during the summer will be returning as well.

This also likely has something to do with a new, less restrictive US-Colombia bilatteral that goes into effect at the turn of the new year, in which AA is obviously looking at expanding their service to Colombia.

Quoting MAH4546 (Reply 19):There is nothing to make more viable. On a per flight basis, AA's Miami-Cali flight, as I've said, bring in the highest passenger yields. They aren't trying to make CLO more viable, they are simple moving capacity around.

I don't share your point. If CLO is a high-yielding market, yet keen on sending out half-full planes, how can dowgrading from 757 to 738 [same thing as cutting capacity in order to limit the offer and potentialize yields] not be called making the route more viable?

Still, I agree, and it wouldn't surprise me either to hear that CLO brings in higher net profits, though not revenue, than MDE. While MDE still offers way more cargo traffic and passenger flow than CLO, it's much cheaper, in general, to operate out of CLO compared to MDE.

Quoting SOUTHAMERICA (Reply 20):I don't share your point. If CLO is a high-yielding market, yet keen on sending out half-full planes, how can dowgrading from 757 to 738 [same thing as cutting capacity in order to limit the offer and potentialize yields] not be called making the route more viable?

I guess it's just choice of words, I misunderstood what you meant. By "making more viable", I interperted that as a negative term, as in "making something not viable, viable". Though I get what you are saying.

Quoting SOUTHAMERICA (Reply 20):Still, I agree, and it wouldn't surprise me either to hear that CLO brings in higher net profits, though not revenue, than MDE. While MDE still offers way more cargo traffic and passenger flow than CLO, it's much cheaper, in general, to operate out of CLO compared to MDE.

Medellin brings in more revenue, thanks to cargo especially. Cali brings in the most passenger net yields.

Just tried to book a trip IAH-CLO, and got the following message from continental.com: Continental or its partners offers service between Houston, TX (IAH - Intercontinental) and Cali, Colombia (CLO) on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. Please modify your search criteria.

Quoting MAH4546 (Reply 21):Medellin brings in more revenue, thanks to cargo especially. Cali brings in the most passenger net yields.

No surprises there, thanks for confirming anyhow.

By the way, based on the above, do you agree, as I said before, that it would not be logical to downgrade MDE from 757 to 738 as done with CLO?

I simply cannot picture it. It's already disastrous when AV, in shortage periods, downgrades MDE to MD-83; the plane goes out severly restricted, they instantly kill the cargo magic, plus they have to limit the passenger load below 100 in order to make it nonstop to MIA. AA, even if the 738 is superior to the MD-83, would be no different.

The difference in seats are just 32 less seats.
And operating the 737 will be less expensive.
AA will pull out of LATAM some of its 757 in order to reconfigure them for the new flights to western Europe, thats the only cause.

Quoting A300AA (Reply 24):And operating the 737 will be less expensive.
AA will pull out of LATAM some of its 757 in order to reconfigure them for the new flights to western Europe, thats the only cause.

I agree in that the 737-800 is less expensive than the 757 but with the cargo that leavs from MDE it doesn't seems a good idea has is with CLO, anyway how much 757s will be reconfigured???

Gus
SKBO

Just put me on any modern airliner and i will be happy, give me more star alliance miles and i will be a lot more happy.